Question:
Orion is my 6 month old German Shepherd. He is about 55 pounds now. I got him when he was 8 weeks old, the shelter was feeding him Pedigree. I immediately started gradually switching him to Innova large breed puppy. Okay so he was on large breed puppy til he was about 4 months old. Then Innova EVO came out with red meat and I was like oh cool a healthy red meat based food YAY! So I started supplementing the lrg puppy with EVO RM, well after about a week of doing that, Orion starts picking out the red meat and leaving the puppy, so I was like, ok EVO is a great food. Just let him eat that...so he has been eating EVO red meat for about 2 months, doing real good on it except for the occasional runny stool.

So I go read on thedogfoodproject.com what to do to stop runny stool...so I'm reading and reading...and I find out that EVO red meat isn't even suitable for large breed puppies!!!! So I flip out, thinking why not...I thought it was a good food!!! So I continue reading to find out that EVO has a really high calcium level that causes rapid overgrowth, or growth retardation!! So I go around talking to people that I know are knowledgable about dogs...person #1 says that as long as the Calcium:Phosphorus ratio is correct, then I am fine feeding EVO RM...person #2 says it doesn't matter either way because any unused calcium is just urinated out...
And then everyone on thedogfoodproject forum is talking about permanent damage and growth retardation etc. and is really freaking me out making me think I am killing my dog.
Do you think being on EVO RM for 2 months could have caused any permanent damage? I switched him back to large breed puppy and I don't care how much he whines and begs he's not getting EVO RM until he is like 2 (the runny stool went away as well)
I have gotten some really mixed replies, some people are like OMG what have you done, and others are like no biggie...

So basically I'm just looking for everyone else's opinions on this...and maybe a little comfort, I just hope I haven't permenently deformed my baby...I mean, wouldn't he have been worse off if I just left him on Pedigree!?! (gag) XP


Answer:
I really wouldn't think that you've done any 'permanent damage' by feeding EVO for a short period of time. I have read a lot just from surfing some of the canine nutritional groups I belong to, about how feeding EVO to puppies is not recommended. Here's a link I came up with that links to some archives on EVO discussions on the Yahoo group, K9Nutrition
http://www.dogaware.com/k9nfaq.html#Evo

I do feel that you're right in wanting to feed him a better quality diet than Pedigree but perhaps while he's still a pup, you can feed him another high quality brand of food, one not so high in calcium. I wouldn't beat yourself up over what you've been feeding him though. I'm sure he's going to be fine and he's awfully lucky to have someone who's willing to learn about what's best for him.